Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)

Béla KELÉNYI: 'May It Shine like the Sun and Moon!' Consecration Texts from a Tibetan Stüpa

2. Brass cover-plate for the lower part of the stupa, engraved with a crossed vajra shaped Sun (T.: nyi met) and a fînial (T.: tog) were originally to be seen. All of these parts have a symbolic meaning. Originally, relics of various kinds were accommodated inside the stüpa, since before the consecration ceremony (S.: pratisthd, T.: rab gnas) the hollow inner part of Tibetan sculptures and stupas was filled with specific materials and texts written on paper scrolls

2 (ill. 2). Rules governing the last mentioned were laid by different manuals (T.: g^ungs 'bul lag len or g^ungg^hug lag len). We do not know exacdy when the stüpa under discussion here was taken apart. The indologist Ervin Baktay (1890— 1963), who described and classified the artefact (he worked at the Hopp Museum from 1946 until 1959), noted separately on the inventory card that the upper part was removable, and that 'inside the base there are prayer-scrolls, a relic and a magic stick'.

3 Presumably, it was in the 1980s that die written scrolls to be found in the stüpa were restored.

4 However, of the various different relics taken from the artefact unfortunately very few now remain.

5 Although the system for the distribution of relics to be placed inside sculptures and stüpas differs to some extent from one Tibetan text to another, in essence four or five kinds of relic are mentioned in them.

6 According to a Tibetan manual studied by the present author, these are the following:' 1. Texts written on paper scrolls; these are mosdy Sanskrit dhdranis (T.: gxungs) that are called 'relics of the dharma body' (T.: chos sku'i ring bsrel); 2. 'Bodily relics' (T.: skugdunggi ring bsrel); 3. Strands of hair (T.: dbu skra) and fingernails (T.: phyagsen) that are called 'relics of the garb' (T.: sku balgyi ring bsrel); 4. Pill-shaped relics that are called 'similar to mustard seed' (T.: jung 'bru lia bu'i ring bsrel)} Of these, it is only texts written on paper scrolls (T.: g^pngs bris) that the present study addresses. These were originally rolled up (T.: g^itngs dkyil) and then, having been sewn with silk, were, in accordance with a system laid down by the manuals, placed in various parts of the inside of the stüpa. According to these books, mantras of buddhas and bodhisattvas are positioned in the very top part of a stüpa; in the upper part, namely in the dharma wheels, are placed mantras linked with the names of lamas playing an important role in the chain of tradition; and in the harmikä is deposited a scroll containing the Sanskrit vowels and consonants. The most usual texts are the socalled 'Five Great Dhäranis' (T.: g^ttng eben sde Ingd), which were placed in especially great number inside stupas.

9 On the basis of the abovementioned manual, the texts and the scheme for their positioning can be reconstructed rather well. Of the woodblock-printed texts written by Tibetan letters from the stüpa in the Hopp collection, a total of seventeen have survived, on different paper scrolls. On these one can read either Tibetan stanzas or Sanskrit dhdranis. Among them are those whose type is indicated by an inscription on the left edge of the scroll. Of the texts, three are printed not with black ink,